Elon Musk has revealed he had a meeting with the Pope as he broke his nine-day silence on Twitter, the social media giant he is trying to buy.

The world’s richest man said he was “honoured” as he tweeted a photo of himself with the head of the Catholic Church, alongside Musk’s four teenage sons.

Musk’s transgender daughter – who applied to legally change her name last month because she no longer wants to be related to her father – was absent from the event.

The purpose and location of Musk’s meeting with Pope Francis were not immediately clear.

However minutes before he shared the image, Musk posted an old photo showing him celebrating his 40th birthday in Venice with his then-wife, British actress Talulah Riley.

“Venice, a site of Great Remembrance,” he tweeted alongside the picture.

Musk – who has eight children – posted on Twitter for the first time in nine days after going unusually quiet on the social media platform.

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He struck a legally-binding agreement to buy the company for $44bn (£35bn) in April, but last month said there were “still a few unresolved matters” on the deal.

The Tesla and SpaceX boss has threatened to pull out unless Twitter provides more information about how many fake accounts are on the social media platform.

He has argued, without showing evidence, that Twitter has significantly underestimated the number of “spam bots” – automated accounts that typically promote scams and misinformation – on its service.

It was reported last month that Twitter plans to offer Musk access to its “firehose” of raw data on hundreds of millions of daily tweets to push his proposed takeover forward.

In April, Musk was named the world’s richest man after relegating Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to second place for the first time in four years, according to Forbes.

He was worth an estimated $219bn (£166bn) on 11 March, after adding $68bn to his fortune over the past year, it said.

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